more katrina links

[hnpcc]

Because I don't have time right now, but I will later.

If Louisiana was Florida.

Or, why you should always get hit by a hurricane in the middle of an election campaign.

Blaming the poor for the hurricane.. seriously, this one makes me really scared. And I've only read about a third of it so far.

Bush authorises below minimum wage wages for construction in New Orleans. Or, Unionise NOW.

Comments

[dalmeny]

OK, I'm scared. Not that I wasn't before.

Regarding the second link: does he consider that other countries with rather better welfare states don't seem to be falling apart?

[hnpcc]

No of course not. His argument appears to be that the third world has no welfare, and they supported each other after the tsunami, so obviously giving people "free money" that's to blame for the lack of community and the looting. I particularly liked:

But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.

So... all the big time drug dealers, the Enron execs who ripped off people, all the white collar criminals who had enough money to get out - and who do actually live off stolen money, that's not a problem. But the sick, the elderly, the mentally ill and the poor - well, you know, they have no values.

Meh. It's racism masquerading as intellectual thought.

[(Anonymous)]

I notice he didn't mention the non-evacuation of the hospitals.
Obviously newborn babies, desperately ill people, the elderly and those in intensive care have no values either.
Neither do the doctors and nurses who could have gone but stayed to look after those who couldn't go. Hang on, there's a problem there.
That man is a twerp.

[valamelmeo.livejournal.com]

There are several states (not sure how many, but Texas and Arizona, two places I've lived, are two of them) where unions are either partially or completely illegal (here in Texas there's a union for public school teachers, and we allow chapters of certain powerful national unions). Not sure if Louisiana is one or not.

[hnpcc]

How bizarre. Coming from a country where unions have historically formed an important part of society it's really odd to think of them being banned. Any information on why they were banned?